Bias and Distorted Media Coverage of Israel/Palestine

As shown by our Media Report Cards, the American press tends to provide extremely distorted coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. There are a number of factors that contribute to this troubling pattern of omission and misrepresentation. One of them is bias. In this section, we will provide information about how bias influences media coverage of this topic, and where this bias originates.

The Tel Aviv Stabbings: What the media left out If Americans Knew - U.S. media coverage of the recent bus attack in Tel Aviv painted a picture of Israeli citizens living in fear of deranged Palestinian terrorists, yet omitted significant information on Palestinians killed and injured by Israelis during the period reported on. more

Another New York Times’ reporter’s son is in the Israeli army Philip Weiss and Adam Horovitz, Mondoweiss - Yet another reporter for the New York Times has a son in the Israeli Defense Forces. Isabel Kershner, a correspondent in the newspaper's Jerusalem bureau, says that her son is in training in the army. This is the third time in recent years that a writer who covers the conflict for America’s leading newspaper has a son serving in an army that is regularly accused of human rights abuses. more

The Aftermath of Israel's Latest Assault on Gaza If Americans Knew - Contrary to U.S. media spin, this assault was not defensive. Israel had blamed Hamas for the June kidnapping and murder of three Jewish settlers in the West Bank, although there was evidence to the contrary, using that as a pretext to attack the Gaza Strip. more

The NYT and the Flotilla Inquiry Alison Weir, CounterPunch - The New York Times, whose regional bureau chief has a son in the Israeli military, reports that Israel has just appointed a panel charged with investigating its attack on an aid flotilla that killed nine aid volunteers, including a 19-year-old American. more

NPR Watch: Linda Gradstein Has Done It Again on Gaza Felice Pace, CounterPunch - NPR’s reporter Linda Gradstein has done it again. She has managed to take a "must report" story on Israeli-Palestinian relations - the new report by B’Tselem on the non-combatants, including children, killed by the Israeli military during the Israeli attack on Gaza - and report it in a manner which minimizes the story's potential to create opposition to Israeli treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza. more

US Media and Israeli Military: All in the Family Alison Weir - Recent exposés revealing that Ethan Bronner, the New York Times Israel-Palestine bureau chief, has a son in the Israeli military have caused a storm of controversy that continues to swirl and generate further revelations. more

Ethan Bronner's Conflict With Impartiality Alison Weir, CounterPunch - Ethan Bronner is the New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief. As such, he is the editor responsible for all the news coming out of Israel-Palestine. It is his job to decide what gets reported and what doesn’t; what goes in a story and what gets cut. more

Killing Palestinians doesn't count: Is a ceasefire breached only when an Israeli is killed? Alison Weir, Poynter.org - On January 27th media headlines trumpeted that Palestinians had broken the latest cease-fire: a bomb had killed one Israeli soldier and injured two or three. Virtually every media outlet reported this action as a major breach in the ceasefire that had begun on January 18th: Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, CBS, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, the McClatchy Newspapers, etc, all pinned the resumption of violence on Palestinians. There's just one problem. Israeli forces had already violated the ceasefire at least seven times. more

BBC chief holds peace talks in Jerusalem with Ariel Sharon Guy Adams, The Independent - The BBC is often accused of an anti-Israeli bias in its coverage of the Middle East, and recently censured reporter Barbara Plett for saying she "started to cry" when Yasser Arafat left Palestine shortly before his death. Fascinating, then, to learn that its director general, Mark Thompson, has recently returned from Jerusalem, where he held a face-to-face meeting with the hardine Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. more

UK Press bias towards Israeli Ambassador Peter Tatchnell - The London-based press watchdog, Arab Media Watch (AMW), has produced research demonstrating that British press reporting of the Middle East conflict has massively favoured the Israeli Ambassador to the almost complete exclusion of the Palestinian Ambassador. more

A pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia Electronic Intifada - A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged. more

The Greatest Story Never Told Stephen Lendman - No issue is more sensitive in the US than daring to criticize Israel. It's the metaphorical "third rail" in American politics, academia and the major media. Anyone daring to touch it pays dearly as the few who tried learned. Those in elected office face an onslaught of attacks and efforts to replace them with more supportive officials. Former five term Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney felt its sting twice in 2002 and 2006. So did 10 term Congressman Paul Findley (a fierce and courageous Israeli critic) in 1982 and three term Senator Charles Percy in 1984 whom AIPAC targeted merely for appearing to support anti-Israeli policy. more

Arabic under fire Brian Whitaker in Comment is Free of the UK Guardian - A child on Hamas TV talked of annihilating the Jews ... or did she? more

Some Muslims Are Not Bad: The Message of PBS's "Crossroads" Series Alison Weir in CounterPunch - I attended an extremely disturbing event Thursday night. It was hosted by WETA, the PBS station in Washington DC, and was part of the national launch of an 11-part PBS series, "America at a Crossroads," to begin airing April 15. It featured clips from the series followed by a panel discussion with some of those involved in the films, moderated by Robert MacNeil. The panel discussion represented a "wide" spectrum of opinions: all the way from, at one end, suggesting that all Muslims are terrorists to, at the other end, suggesting that some Muslims are not terrorists. more

Why Does Israel Receive So Much Criticism?
he media has a great hold over the things that interest us, they are the 'agenda setters', they are the people who put so many ideas into our heads. But, in order to discover to what extent this explains the bloggers' actions, we must try to establish how much media time is given to Israel, and also to other countries, such as Sudan, Nigeria, and Palestine. more

Commentary: Why does The Times recognize Israel's 'right to exist'? Saree Makdisi, Los Angeles Times - 'AS SOON AS certain topics are raised," George Orwell once wrote, "the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse." Such a combination of vagueness and sheer incompetence in language, Orwell warned, leads to political conformity. more

Lost in translation Jonathan Steele, UK Guardian Comment is free... - Experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map'. Reports that he did serve to strengthen western hawks. more

Placing the Fox in Charge of the Hen House: Washington Post Book Reviews on Israel Brian Hennessey - To review Jimmy Carter's book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, the Washington Post chose a Jewish Israeli citizen who willingly moved from his American birthplace to volunteer to become a soldier in Israel, working as a prison guard at one of Israel's worst prisons, where International and Israeli human rights organizations have documented a lack of process, inhumane conditions and torture for the hundreds of Palestinians (many women and children) who are held there indefinitely and without charge. more

Gaza and Darfur Alexander Cockburn in CounterPunch - As a zone of ongoing, large-scale bloodletting Darfur in the western Sudan has big appeal for US news editors. Americans are not doing the killing, or paying for others to do it. So there's no need to minimize the vast slaughter with the usual drizzle of "allegations." There's no political risk here in sounding off about genocide in Darfur. The crisis in Darfur is also very photogenic. more

The New York Times Marginalizes Palestinian Women and Palestinian Rights Patrick O'Connor and Rachel Roberts in The Electronic Intifada - A November 7, 2006 New York Times news article about a Human Rights Watch report on domestic violence against Palestinian women brings welcome attention to human rights issues. Unfortunately, the same article, viewed in the context of The New York Times' reporting on Israel/Palestine over the last six years, provides a powerful example of typical US mainstream media bias against Palestinians. Research shows clearly that The New York Times pays little attention to human rights in Israel/Palestine, downplays the larger context in which violence against Palestinian women occurs and generally silences Palestinian women's voices. more

Al Jazeera and the Truth Charley Reese on AntiWar.com - Al-Jazeera, the Arab television network that the Bush administration hates so passionately, has launched its English-language service but is, of course, having trouble finding an American cable or satellite system willing to carry it. more

CNN's Lebanon Problem Eric Boehlert in The Huffington Post - I was surprised yesterday afternoon when a Reuters article popped onto my computer screen reporting that 53 Lebanese civilians had been killed by Israeli forces, part of the suddenly chaotic two-front battle Israel's military is fighting in the Middle East. Surprised, because I had been monitoring the day's events on CNN and hadn't heard much about that kind of swelling Lebanese death toll. more

Israel's Plan for a Military Strike on Iran Jonathan Cook in Counter Punch - The Middle East, and possibly the world, stands on the brink of a terrible conflagration as Israel and the United States prepare to deal with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel, it becomes clearer by the day, wants to use its air force to deliver a knock-out blow against Tehran. It is not known whether it will use conventional weapons or a nuclear warhead in such a strike. more

BBC's coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict 'misleading' Owen Gibson in The UK Guardian - The BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "incomplete" and "misleading", including failing to adequately report the hardships of Palestinians living under occupation, an independent review commissioned by the corporation's board of governors has found. more

On Journalism and Media Diana Buttu in This Week in Palestine - Watching Western television or reading newspaper reports of Palestine always leaves me perplexed. If I did not live in Palestine and bear witness to Israel’s military occupation, I would be left with the impression that Palestinians and Israelis are equals – with no occupation existing – and that this conflict simply requires “concessions” on both sides. I would be unaware that the Palestinians have, for almost 39 years, been denied their freedom and unaware that for more than five decades dispossessed of their land. more

Case Study of Pro-Israel Bias: Children's BBC Website Guide To The Middle-East Conflict Innovative Minds - The Children’s BBC Newsround website provides ready to use "lesson plans" to help teachers use news in the classroom. According to the site: "The lesson plans are designed to be printed off and used in the classroom. They contain background information so you can teach them straight away... All our activities are referenced to the UK's curricula and guidance notes." The site is also part of the National Grid for Learning (a government sponsored strategy to help teachers in the UK by providing educational resources on the internet for use in the classroom).
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AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy Alison Weir - In the midst of journalism’s “Sunshine Week” – during which the Associated Press and other news organizations are valiantly proclaiming the public’s “right to know” – AP insists on conducting its own activities in the dark, and refuses to answer even the simplest questions about its system of international news reporting.
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Response to AP Statement About Erasing Video; Foundation for Claims
For over a year AP refused to respond to questions about this incident. Now, only a few days after the publication of my article, public outcry has forced AP to issue a statement. Not surprsingly this statement attempts to absolve them of any wrongdoing. More unexpected is their description of the shooting of a child in ways that minimize Israel’s culpability. more

Torture, Anyone? Nabeel Abraham in Lies of Our Times - On February 4, 1992, Mustafa Akawi, a 35-year-old Palestinian, died while being detained in a prison on the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Akawi’s death touched off demonstrations by Palestinians and calls by human rights groups for an investigation. The first that readers of the New York Times learned about these events was in a photo caption that appeared on February 7. The photo depicted two outstretched arms collaring a Palestinian demonstrator. The caption noted that the Israeli police had announced an investigation into “the death of a Palestinian prisoner in the West Bank” (“Arabs Protest Killing of West Bank Prisoner,” p. A11). An astute reader might conclude that Akawi had died as a result of torture, but the Times, keeping to past practice, avoided the suggestion.
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Anatomy of a Cover-Up: When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Alison Weir in CounterPunch - Why don’t Americans Know what’s going on in Israel/Palestine? The answer is unclear at this point, but some disturbing patterns are beginning to emerge. They implicate some of our major news media, and, perhaps most of all, the Associated Press, the oldest and largest wire service in the world. Most American editors and journalists have no idea what is occurring under their watch. To date, there is little indication that they care.
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Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You’re Against Torture, So Why’d You Give Israel a Pass? Alison Weir in CounterPunch - I’ve just phoned The Daily Show at 212.767.8600 and left you a message; I also faxed you at 212.468.1890. I hope other people will also! I’m sure glad you’re against torture. I just wish you were also against torture by Israel. I was pretty astounded to hear you chatting with John McCain last night, nodding along as AIPAC-buddy McCain explained that the US should emulate Israel, “which doesn’t torture people.”
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Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine Patrick O’Connor in ZNet - The fact that thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis are together employing nonviolent tactics similar to those of the US civil rights movement and the South African anti-Apartheid movement would come as surprising and welcome news to most Americans. Americans are largely unaware of the struggling but vibrant grassroots nonviolent movement in Palestine, because the US corporate media prefers a simple, flawed story of Palestinian terrorist attacks and Israeli retaliation.
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The Newsworthiness of Death John McManus in Grade the News - The priority given to Israelis suffering in front-page headlines was reinforced throughout the stories by the order in which casualties were described, and first-person accounts of Israeli deaths contrasted with second-hand and approximate estimates of Palestinian fatalities. We also noticed that Palestinian forces were consistently labeled as “gunmen” and “militants” -- terms with negative connotations in our culture – but rarely as “fighters” and never as “resistance forces.” Because some Mercury News articles were first reported by the Associated Press, and the AP serves so many American newspapers, we also analyzed every story the AP moved during the study period using the Lexis-Nexis database.
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The Coverage—and Non-Coverage—of Israel-Palestine Alison Weir in AMEU’s The Link - In the fall of 2004, we visited the Palestinian Territories. Such a simple statement, and such a complicated reality. Let me try again... In the fall of 2004, we visited a large, open-air prison. A prison whose guards keep people out, when they choose to, as well as in, humiliating and violating those they dislike; a prison into which the jailers periodically shoot and send regiments of destruction; a prison full of mini-prisons and convoluted rules that change with the wind. A complicated, teeming prison in which there are wedding festivals and dancing; where babies laugh and the tea is flavored with mint and sage; and where desperation silently waits.
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Relativity, LA Times Style Alison Weir - Well, I just got hung up on again. This time by an editor on the Los Angeles Times foreign desk. He didn’t give me his name. I had called and attempted, as politely as possible, to give him a correction for the story on the Times’ website tonight. This will probably be their front-page lead news story tomorrow morning.
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Russia, Israel, and Media Coverage Alison Weir in Counter Punch - As is often the case with AP’s coverage of news having to do with Israel, there’s a serious omission in its reporting on the Russia-Israel connection even when it involves oil and the United States.
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Fanning the Hysteria About Iran: NPR Leads the Charge to War Mike Whitney in CounterPunch - When did “liberal” NPR become a champion of American aggression against Iran? Listeners to National Public Radio are increasingly apt to criticize the “rightward shift” in the station’s news coverage. The August 30 “Morning Edition” program, however, reached a new low for slanted journalism and for making the Bush Administration’s case for war with Iran.
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Of Settler Crimes and Media Silence Al Jazeera - If Americans appreciated the scale of human-rights abuses committed by Israeli colonists in the occupied territories, they would condemn the journalists who keep them in the dark, a US peace activist says.
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Mystery Man Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post - In several articles, Washington Times reporter Paul Martin assumed an Arab pseudonym and claimed to speak as an insider about Palestinians.
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